On the Radar

Contact Hour 28?: To be discussed on Friday 27th April, 2013.

Lecturer: Dr Chris P. Jobling.

Abstract

Interesting developments in Web Applications Technology or What Might Be Good to Have on Your CV in a year or two's time. Use your favourite search engine to find out more.

• Client Side
  • Structural Layer
  • Presentation Layer
  • Behavioural Layer
• Server-Side
• Database layer
• Development Best-Practices
• How do I know?

• HTML5 of course!
• HAML

• CSS3
• HTML5 boilerplate – some HTML5 but a lot of CSS best practices too
• Grid-based fluid layout frameworks
• Responsive Web Design
• Mobile-first design
• Media queries
• SASS and LESS

• New HTML5 JavaScript APIs and browser capabilities
• Modernizr and polyfills
• jQuery library
• Backbone.js

These two compile to JavaScript:

• Coffeescript → built-in to Rails
• Dart → being developed by Google by and for their own web app developers

Hundreds of them! Aside from Backbone.js, the ones I think are worth deeper study are:

• Angular.js
• Ember.js
• Spine.js
• Knockout.js
• Meteor.js

Keep an eye on TodoMVC for more and examples of their use.

• Other Programming Languages
• Important frameworks that you'll meet next year
• Other Mainstream Web Development Frameworks
• Interesting niche frameworks
• Apps vs Web Apps

• PHP
• Java
• Python
• C#
• Perl
• JavaScript!

Very popular in so-called enterprise applications and intranet developments:

• Java: Servlets, JSP, JSF, Java Web Services, Spring, … Internet Computing
• Microsoft .NET: C#, ASP.NET, … Building Reliable Web Applications

• Ruby on Rails – Ruby
• Django – Python
• Cake, Laravel – PHP
• Node.js – JavaScript
• Spring – Java
• …

• Dart → compiles to “JavaScript for the modern browser”, but it's server-side too!
• Google Web Toolkit (GWT) → Java to HTML/JavaScript
• Google App Engine → Python and Java
• Sinatra → Ruby
• Express.js → JavaScript + Node.js + the Client-side MVC framework of your choice
• Meteor → JavaScript + Node.js

• Smart phones
• Tablets
• Surfaces
• TVs
• Gaming consoles

• Web Apps: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Location Services, Local Storage, Canvas, … all devices!
• iOS: Mac only development tools XCode, Objective-C and Cocoa target iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, distribution by App Store only.
• Android: Java so cross platform development. Main problem → fragmentation of platform.

Complex data models with lots of relationships require complex and time/space consuming join queries.

Rise of the so-called No SQL alternatives:

• redis
• MongoDB
• CouchDB

Many of the most widely used tools and techniques have come from the Open Source Community and Agile Development.

• Version control - almost standardized on Git but some major projects use CVS, SVN, Mercury, Bazaar
• Development communities - GitHub, SourceForge, Google Code
• Behavioural and Test Driven Development - Unit testing, executable specifications (e.g. RSpec), acceptance testing (e.g. Cucumber), continuous integration

• I follow the RSS feeds lots of development sites
• I read influential on-line journals
• I Watch selected videos on YouTube and other video sharing sites
• I listen to technical development podcasts
• I have Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts
• I occasionally blog
• I am signed up to Code Year, Code School and Nettuts+
• I set myself development projects in a technology I need to learn
• I teach so I have to continuously learn!

You should do some or all of these too!

• The ChangeLog blog and podcasts – “open source moves fast, keep up!”
• RailsCasts and similar
• A List Apart
• HTML5 Doctor and HTML5 Rocks
• Google TechTalks and Google I/O conference sessions on YouTube
• YUI Theatre
• BBC Click (TV iPlayer and radio Podcast)
• The Guardian Tech weekly podcast

• Client Side
  • Structural Layer
  • Presentation Layer
  • Behavioural Layer
• Server-Side
• Database layer
• Development Best-Practices
• How do I know?

Thanks for Watching!

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